This system is the most complete that has ever existed in any
country, because it has drawn so many of the inhabitants of the
country into its meshes. Practically, the industrial workers
of the great towns and the stupid peasants in the country are
the only people in Germany left out of its net.
I had a shooting place very near Berlin, in fact I could reach
it in three quarters of an hour by motor from the Embassy door,
and there I had an opportunity of studying the conditions of
life of the peasant class.
Germany is still a country of great proprietors. Lands may be held
there by a tenure which was abolished in Great Britain hundreds of
years ago. In Great Britain, property may only be tied up under
fixed conditions during the lives of certain chosen people, in
being at the death of the testator. In the State of New York,
property may only be tied up during the lives of two persons,
in being at the death of the person making the will, and for
twenty-one years (the minority of an infant) thereafter. But
in the Central Empires, property still may be tied up for an
indefinite period under the feudal system, so that great estates,
no matter how extravagant the life tenant may be, are not sold
and do not come into the market for division among the people.
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